Cycling UK Forum

So they're assuming the toilet has a 9 litre cistern, hedging their bets between an old 12 litre one and the new 6 litre "water saving" one.
I put water saving in inverted commas because I've found they waste water rather than save it. I put off swapping my toilet for years (even to the point of flushing with a bucket after the old cistern broke) because I'd noticed that everyone elses "water saving" toilets took several flushes to get them to empty. I've had a 6l cistern for two years now, and it takes 2, 3 or sometimes even four flushes to empty the pan, so my water bill has gone up.

Our bill is £360 per year for as much water as we can consume.
We pay in two six-monthly payments.

We filled that on-line estimate widget and played around with the figures. We found it wasn't worth it to have a meter.

Flat rate billing based on RV is a good deal and a rational choice for a heavy consumer, but it's a bad deal for the environment and society as a whole because it encourages profligacy. It's like going dutch at a restaurant, everyone has an incentive to pick the most expensive dish, so the bill goes up for everyone (a prisoners dilemma). Pricing for water, gas, electricity, petrol etc should be rewarding frugality not profligacy. Even with a meter and a standing charge the incentive is still the wrong way round, because the pro rata cost goes down as you consume more.

Mick F wrote:Our bill is £360 per year for as much water as we can consume.

Hi,
I have been on a meter for several years now, I did,nt know that old rates system was so low unless you have some discount added
I will check the fixed rate later, last look it was £ 550.

East Yorks, 3 bed council house. £67 a month or 400 quid every 6 months.
Going to try get a water meter.
On the subject of water. I recently worked with a guy who says he NEVER pays his water bill and hasn't for years because he has kids and they cant cut his water off because of that!

Sorry, I was unclear.

We only have water supply.
No drainage.
No sewage.
Just water supply.

£360 is expensive just for water supply, but Southwest Water is the most expensive company in Britain.

We could save some money by being on a meter, but we prefer to pay a tad more and never worry about how much we use.

£175 for this year with Severn Trent on the old rateable value system. Many houses on our street of Victorian terraces have shared connections with the neighbours so meters aren't an option without getting work done.

My thanks to the OP for starting this thread....

Our current bill is £398 per annum.

I rang Thames Water this morning, and the lady I spoke to went through the type of house we have, and our type of useage (eg do we have a dishwasher (no) do we use a hose in the garden (yes)). By her estimate, if we were to have a meter, our bill would drop to about £282 so we're definately going ahead with that!

We can change back if we find we're not saving any money, but have to do so within the first 12 months. Although we do water the garden (particularly the vegetables), we use our two water butts first, and I can water my tubs on the patio using a watering can if I'm bothered about the amount of water we're using.

Jan

Mick F wrote:Sorry, I was unclear.
We only have water supply.
No drainage.
No sewage.
Just water supply.
£360 is expensive just for water supply, but Southwest Water is the most expensive company in Britain.
We could save some money by being on a meter, but we prefer to pay a tad more and never worry about how much we use.

Hi,
Our water ONLY bill would be less than £ 140 per annum
If you have four adults living at home then you are better off as you are (water only), If two only and we went back to our old ways then you might be better off on fixed.
It wouldnt suprise me despite your tonque in cheek coments about being able to fill up nextdoors pool for free
If you are not using as much as you think

NATURAL ANKLING wrote: ........... If you are not using as much as you think

I wonder if I could fit a flow meter in the riser just after our stop cock. It would be an interesting thing to do.

Can you buy them?
It would need to be 22mm.

"Why do we have 22mm?" I hear you all ask.
I installed all our plumbing internally here. We have a long length of 22mm black plastic pipe to supply us from the lane about 100yds away and 100ft below. There's much friction loss in the pipe so we don't have much at the taps. Pressure is ok of course, it's FLOW that we lack. Therefore I've installed 22mm just about everywhere I could and a huge water storage tank in the loft to maintain the hot water. If the tank was small, we could use more hot water than the mains could supply through the ball valve.

Mick F wrote:

NATURAL ANKLING wrote: ........... If you are not using as much as you think

I wonder if I could fit a flow meter in the riser just after our stop cock. It would be an interesting thing to do.

Hi,
You could get a meter fitted free by SWW, And change anytime for nought I do believe
Not sure on exact conditions, but you do have 12 months to switch back for nought too
When on meter do as you do one or two months, then start a car wash and laundry buisiness for two months , then by frugal
As see how you go.........................

P.S. Some properties are not suited for meters

Oh yes, I know we could get one fitted and then go back to rates if we wanted. The meter would remain in place though because they won't remove it afterwards ............. and then it's a slippery slope to have meterage forced upon you some time down the line if there is a change in policy.

I don't trust the water companies. They only exist to make money and they'll rob you blind to make a profit.

If I fitted my own meter, I could check our annual consumption over a couple of years with no obligation to SWW whatsoever ............ then make an educated decision based on actual facts.

I know for sure that South East Water are now committed to get 90% of customers on meters by 2020.
http://www.makingeverydropcount.co.uk/

I'm vaguely aware that the waters companies were granted some increased powers to enforce mandatory metering not so long ago.

Your local water company might also have a long-term mandatory metering plan. Best to trawl their websites or give them a phone call ( if you have nothing better to do ).

My guess is that when mandatory metering is rolled out and folks become more frugal, the water companies will wrack-up the metered charges to restore the lost income.
( . . . . and no more need to make the the metered water charges attractive when it becomes effectively compulsory !! )

Yep.
We'e discussed this very subject with friends only recently. They've just had a meter installed and are as sceptical as I am.

If metering's so good and cheap, they'll do themselves out of business if everybody had one.

I've just had a quick scan of the SW water website. http://www.southwestwater.co.uk/

I could not find any strategic meter rollout plan mentioned on there, but perhaps the region is not considered as water-stressed from a supply POV.

I noticed that the metered price per m3 of water is nearly double the price in this area. Whew - nearly £2 per m3 - that is steep !

Nevertheless I'll lay a bet that your friends will cut their water bill by having a meter.
It will have a very powerful attention-focussing effect.